Another day in Newport

I often get the feeling that the Universe has plans for me that it refuses to actually share with me... The entire trip from Rochester to Newport was great; everything went beautifully and smoothly...or better than expected. Now, in the space of three days, I've had to invest over $100 in repairing my bike (I'm glad I'm not driving a car, or it would have been $1000) and am now faced with unpleasant and dangerous biking weather. I know some people wouldn't think much of riding in driving rain when it's about 40-45 degrees, but I'm not one of those people.

I had a terrible breakfast this morning...I recommend that anyone in Newport eat anywhere other than the Newport Cafe. I had eggs with biscuits and gravy...my sunny side up eggs were salmonella side up...half cooked at best, and when I pointed this out to the waitress, she argued with me that that is how sunny side up are supposed to be. Sorry dear, I've eaten thousands of eggs this way (my favorite style) and never, ever had them with more uncooked white than cooked. The gravy seemed like someone had made a roux out of pepper and kindergarten paste, then added a couple of chunks of sausage. The biscuit was doughy...seemed to have been cooked as thoroughly as the eggs. And the sausage links that came with it were pink in the middle. Yum!

Maybe I'll be lucky and get food poisoning while I'm here.

Sorry folks. Don't mean to complain, but just keeping it real and letting everybody know that not every aspect of this journey is pleasurable. Could be worse, though. Grumble, grumble.

I have had time to think about Newport style clam chowder, though. I still don't understand why everybody here serves New England style when there are so many flavors that make this coast distinctive. So here's what I've been thinking...

Maybe I'm going to be stranded here for a while and have to organize some sort of contest to come up with a unique chowder for the area. I have what I think is a great idea, now I just need a kitchen in which to refine my recipe.

Anyway...it looks like the rain is letting up...at least for the moment. Maybe it will clear up like it did late yesterday. It was a magnificent sunset last night. I will post some pictures soon, I promise. I meant to with this post, but of course I forgot to bring my usb cable to attach to this here computer.

Impractical farming and transportation

With the growing problems of global warming and escalating gas prices, I can't quite figure out why more people aren't interested in local production of our food and other goods. We have technology to grow anything anywhere on the planet. Well, maybe five miles under the ocean would be a problem, but we can grow chocolate in Antarctica if we want.

If we grew our food locally, the prices would be greatly reduced because we wouldn't need to use excessive amounts of fuel to move it from one place to another. The average piece of produce consumed in the US travels three thousand miles from field to table. This makes no sense.

I will flesh this out in days to come.